A Capillary Zone Electrophoresis Method for Selenite Detection in Culture Media for Total Selenium Determination in Yeast Cells

Selenium enriched yeast is the most prevalent source of organic selenium for humans and animals. In this study, an effective capillary zone electrophoresis method was established to quantify total selenium in yeast biomass by measuring selenite level in post incubated culture media. The detection of selenite could be achieved within 7.9 min under the condition of a mixture buffer of 85 mM Na2HPO4 and 0.5 mM CTAB (pH 9.37), -5 kV separation voltage with 1.0 psi x 30 s injection at 200 nm. The range of calibration curve linearity of the standard was from 5 to 300 mg/L (r(2) = 0.99998), and the recovery was 102.4%. Owing to the ease of sample collection and simple detection, this method is convenient for the evaluation of total selenium accumulated in yeast cell biomass and helps to guide the production of selenium enriched yeast.